Why Madam president in South Korea may not be gender game changer South Koreans weigh in on election
STORY HIGHLIGHTS Park Geun-hye to become 18th president of South Korea -- its first female leader Moon writes it's easy to look at Park's future presidency as sign of social change Park's father's legacy has propelled her political career, writes Moon Moon: Park's political record lacks support of policies promoting gender equality
Editor's note: Seungsook Moon is a professor of sociology and chair of the department at Vassar College. As a political and cultural sociologist, she is the author of "Militarized Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea" and a coeditor and contributor of "Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present."
(CNN) -- Citizens of South Korea chose their 18th president this week -- Park Geun-hye, who will be the nation's first female leader.
Park, 60, was the candidate of the ruling conservative New Frontier Party, also known as Saenuri. To some observers' surprise, Park's campaign had repeatedly highlighted her gender as a marker of her superiority to her rival, Moon Jae-in, a 59-year-old candidate of the opposition Democratic United Party, who is currently a member of the National Assembly.
Seungsook Moon, sociology professor at Vassar College has published numerous articles on gender and citizenship.For example, her television advertisements promoted Park as a prepped woman president who understands feminine leadership that is responsible and subtle. Park also made pledges appealing to women in workplace and family. She even equated the birth of a woman president with political cleanup and innovation in South Korea.
Looking at Park's future presidency from afar without considering its historical and social context, it is rather tempting to celebrate it as a sign of positive social change in the conservative Asian country -- women have finally arrived. Or have they?
Certainly, there is an affirmative note in the conservative party's calculation that they need to woo women voters and promote feminine leadership as a positive alternative to a male leadership soiled by corruption and power struggle.
We can appreciate its significance even more when this change is juxtaposed with the 1990s when many pregnant women in South Korea aborted female fetuses to ensure that they would have at least one son among one or two children they were willing to bear. The positive meaning of feminine leadership is also a step forward from older generations of women leaders in South Korea and elsewhere, who either downplayed their gender or ignored it altogether to avoid any negative consequence for their political career.
South Korea elects woman as president However, looking into it, the gender politics of Park's candidacy is replete with contradictions and ironies. Here are a few examples.
First, her political career, including her prominence in national politics since the 2002 presidential election, has been propelled and maintained by her father's posthumous political fortune.
She is the daughter of Park Chung-hee who ruled the country with a repressive iron fist from 1961 to 1979. Her father came to power through a military coup d état and his rule ended when he was assassinated by his own Korean CIA director.
In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis (1997-1998) and disillusionment with civilian presidents who were democratically elected, a growing number of Koreans became nostalgic about her late father whose collective memory had been largely negative. In multiple national surveys conducted at the turn of the second millennia, an increasing number of respondents chose her father as "one of the greatest leaders" or even the greatest leader in Korean history.
Park began her political career in 1998 when she was elected to be a National Assembly member representing the city of Daegu through a special election.
Conservative Koreans have adored her as the daughter of the national hero. In fact, during the later years of her father's presidency, known as Yushin Dictatorship (1972-1979), young Park played the role of the first lady because her mother was assassinated in 1974 by a North Korean agent who intended to kill her father. This experience shaped her views on major historical and current issues in South Korea that often echo her father's. To progressive Koreans, her father's specter looms too large to consider Park as a symbol of new feminine leadership.
Second, evaluating her record as a politician in her own right without reducing her to her political pedigree, there is little to celebrate. She lacks a track record of practicing such positive feminine leadership and supporting policies to promote gender equality and empower social minorities in general.
On the contrary, she is known for her inability to communicate with people spontaneously and her lack of empathy for difficult lives of grassroots populace because of her privileged position throughout her life. Her admirers praise Park for her composure and discipline, but these positive qualities are not specifically related to her feminine leadership and commitment to empowering women and other social minorities. Therefore, the vociferous emphasis on these issues in her presidential campaign was nothing but expedient rhetoric to win the presidential race.
President-elect Park Geun-Hye, South Korea's first female president, waves to supporters after being declared the winner on December 19, 2012 in Seoul. She will become one of several female leaders in Asia, as well as the world. Julia Gillard, the first woman in Australia to hold the position as prime minister, assumed office in 2010. She made a fiery speech about sexism that drew global attention in October.
Yingluck Shinawatra became Thailand's first female prime minister in 2011 after her party won a majority of parliamentary seats. She is the younger sister of one of Thailand's most polarizing political figures, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Sheikh Hasina is the prime Minister of Bangladesh. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led efforts for autonomy from Pakistan and was killed in a coup. Dilma Rousseff assumed office in January 2011, becoming the first woman to become Brazil's president. Other female leaders in Latin America are Laura Chinchilla and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, presidents of Costa Rica and Argentina, respectively. Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessa has held the office since 2010. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been Liberia's president since 2006. In 2011, she won the Nobel Peace Prize along with two others for their women's rights advocacy. Another female president in sub-Saharan Africa is President Joyce Banda in Malawi, who took office in 2012. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė and Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt talk with France's former President Sarkozy at a European Union summit on January 30, 2012 in Brussels. There are several female presidents and prime ministers in Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has served the country since 2005 and is a powerful champion of the European Union. South Korea's President ParkAustralia's Prime Minister GillardThailand's Prime Minister YingluckBangladesh' Prime Minister Sheikh HasinaBrazil's President Rousseff Trinidad's Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar Liberia's President Johnson SirleafLithuania's President and Denmark's PMChancellor Angela MerkelHIDE CAPTION<<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >>>
Third, comparatively speaking, the rise of Park's political star echoes the ironic situation of women politicians elsewhere (such as Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Megawati Sukarnoputri and Sarah Palin), promoted by conservative or leftist parties that have rarely prioritized or supported gender equality in their policy making and implementation.
Park also conforms to the recurring model of female political leader who is a daughter, a wife, or a sister of a powerful male leader. This reveals that high social status overrides female gender in many societies and especially in a patriarchal society.
Women politicians in such situation may conjure up a powerful illusion that women are also individuals (like men) with equal right to run for public offices at all levels. Their presence also reflects a popular sentiment for gender equality that has spread globally in recent decades. Yet such women politicians are more likely to be window dressing to garner public support than agents of progressive social change toward equality and empowerment of women and other social minorities.
By Seungsook Moon, Special to CNN December 22, 2012 -- Updated 0338 GMT (1138 HKT)
From conquering fears to falling in love: Your best moments of 2012
By George Webster, Sarah Brown, Stina Backer, and Eoghan Macguire, CNN
December 20, 2012 -- Updated 1807 GMT (0207 HKT)
CNN asked our iReporters, Instagrammers and staffers to select images that capture their best moments of 2012. Here are some of our favorites.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
CNN asked people from all over the world to send in their best moments of 2012
From the Philippines to Scotland, hundreds of people sent their most memorable images
Submissions include exhilarating holidays, the birth of kids, the realization of dreams
What was your best moment of 2012? Send us your pictures (CNN) -- For some it was an exhilarating holiday to an exotic place, finding new love or conquering their greatest fear. For others, it was witnessing an historic event.
And for a few, it was simply a case of being in the right place at the right time to capture a moment that will forever stick in the mind.
CNN asked people from all over the world to send in their highlight of the year. From the Philippines, to Scotland, to South Africa, hundreds of people shared their most treasured images.
2012 was the year the Olympics games came to London, and, unsurprisingly, many people sent in their images of the various competitions held around the capital.
Every year around a 1000 New Year revellers brave freezing conditions in the River Forth in front of the Forth Rail Bridge during the annual Loony Dook Swim. Similar sub-zero New Year soaks are found across the chillier corners of the northern hemisphere from Sweden to Siberia.
A crowd of people gathered in Puerta del Sol in Madrid stuff their faces with 12 grapes to celebrate the New Year, each representing a month in the year ahead. Similar grape-related larks are practiced in Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica
In the Swiss ski resort of Klosters, the first day of January is celebrated with a piglet race in which 10 tiny porkers sprint through the snow for the enviable prize of being spared from the sausage factory.
Perhaps in tribute to their nation's industrial might, some Germans celebrate New Year with a drop of molten lead. A spoonful is melted over a candle and dropped into a bucket of water. Shapes formed by the droplets are used to divine signs of fortune to come.
Revelers take part in the 30-year-old 'San Silvestre' New Year's race in brightly colored underwear at La Font de la Figuera, Valencia, Spain. In Italy, Spain and South and Central America, color-coded underpants take on special meaning at New Year with red or yellow auguring luck or romance.
In South Africa, police have had to issue regular warnings following the development of a somewhat hazardous tradition of throwing fridges out of household windows during the New Year's holiday. A similar practice of chucking unwanted goods out windows, including old TV sets, was common in Italy but is now, gratefully, extinct.
Not everyone is prone to raucous outbursts of New Year cheer. In a surprising survey last year, it was revealed that over a third of Britons prefer to be tucked up in bed on the stroke of midnight.
Sub-zero swim
Good luck grapes
Unlucky pigs
A spoonful of lead
Party pants
Flying fridges
Seasonal sleep
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Unusual New Year party traditions
Gaya Ilang, who works as the artist Gaya3in1, was lucky enough to participate in the Games' spectacular opening ceremony -- playing a nurse. She sent in an image of proud participants posing eagerly just before they took part in the ceremony.
Firework's light up Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. This year will see the city's midnight fireworks display journey across town for the first time, beginning out at the sea and moving along Victoria Harbour to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.
More than one million people will head to Times Square for New York's legendary fun-filled celebrations on December 31. This year's live entertainment will come from the likes of Taylor Swift, Psy and the Neon Trees.
Sydney Harbour is world-renowned for its spectacular New Year's firework show, but event organizers say this year's event will be even better thanks to the top-secret pyrotechnic effects they have in store.
London intends to see out a 2012 -- a year in which the city hosted the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee -- in style. There will be a spectacular fireworks display along the banks of the river Thames.
Berlin is renowned for hosting one of the world's largest open-air New Year celebrations. DJ's entertain music fans along the "Party Mile": a two kilometer strip of dancefloors, stages and bars behind the Brandenburg Gate.
CNN iReport
Every year around a 1000 New Year revellers brave freezing conditions in the River Forth in front of the Forth Rail Bridge during the annual Loony Dook Swim. Similar sub-zero New Year soaks are found across the chillier corners of the northern hemisphere from Sweden to Siberia.
A crowd of people gathered in Puerta del Sol in Madrid stuff their faces with 12 grapes to celebrate the New Year, each representing a month in the year ahead. Similar grape-related larks are practiced in Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica
In the Swiss ski resort of Klosters, the first day of January is celebrated with a piglet race in which 10 tiny porkers sprint through the snow for the enviable prize of being spared from the sausage factory.
Perhaps in tribute to their nation's industrial might, some Germans celebrate New Year with a drop of molten lead. A spoonful is melted over a candle and dropped into a bucket of water. Shapes formed by the droplets are used to divine signs of fortune to come.
Revelers take part in the 30-year-old 'San Silvestre' New Year's race in brightly colored underwear at La Font de la Figuera, Valencia, Spain. In Italy, Spain and South and Central America, color-coded underpants take on special meaning at New Year with red or yellow auguring luck or romance.
In South Africa, police have had to issue regular warnings following the development of a somewhat hazardous tradition of throwing fridges out of household windows during the New Year's holiday. A similar practice of chucking unwanted goods out windows, including old TV sets, was common in Italy but is now, gratefully, extinct.
Not everyone is prone to raucous outbursts of New Year cheer. In a surprising survey last year, it was revealed that over a third of Britons prefer to be tucked up in bed on the stroke of midnight.
Firework's light up Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. This year will see the city's midnight fireworks display journey across town for the first time, beginning out at the sea and moving along Victoria Harbour to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.
More than one million people will head to Times Square for New York's legendary fun-filled celebrations on December 31. This year's live entertainment will come from the likes of Taylor Swift, Psy and the Neon Trees.
Sydney Harbour is world-renowned for its spectacular New Year's firework show, but event organizers say this year's event will be even better thanks to the top-secret pyrotechnic effects they have in store.
Berlin is renowned for hosting one of the world's largest open-air New Year celebrations. DJ's entertain music fans along the "Party Mile": a two kilometer strip of dancefloors, stages and bars behind the Brandenburg Gate.
